PenTwist

Out of your most favored list of characters, one will arise!

…

Caged Minds

Review by C. White

Five people, all trapped in a five-star hotel doing the bidding of an anonymous host. Threats of blackmail, physical harm to family and promises of success keep these five participating in a deadly game. The five are key figures in the journalism world; different levels but nonetheless, important in their own right.  Toss in some secret agencies, a hostile take-over by men in ski masks and suits and you have the beginning of one roller coaster thriller ride.  Not everyone gets to leave alive!

Trust does not come easy but the ticking clock helps to build some bonds while exposing others.  There is more going on than meets the eye!

A cleverly crafted thriller, David Pyle, takes his readers deep into the underbelly of terrorism, greed and secrecy.  Nothing is left to chance, each step a character takes is choreographed with precision, each word has a meaning … Pyle has woven an engrossing book that prevents the reader from putting it down.  A long but exciting read.  There is not a dull moment – if there’s no action going on, then there is intrigue that begs full disclosure.

The characters are well developed and from the first moment you don’t know who to trust but Pyle leads you to the truth.  The characters are perfectly constructed fitting expertly into the story.  Each step of the storyline and character involvement is thorough and intensely intriguing.

A must read for all lovers of thrillers and mysteries. I found this book very well written and interesting. Pyle has so much promise and I hope he continues to write!

Pyle has a true knack for laying the groundwork for long, detailed and intense thrillers. 

WordsAPlenty gives this book a five-star rating for suspense and uniqueness.   

Link:  https://charjwhite.blogspot.com/2017/06/caged-minds-by-david-pyle.html

Review by Charla White
@ wordsaplenty.com

“David Pyle has created a southern world filled with familial ties, supernatural beings, action, mystery, voodoo and even the walking dead!
Between Life and Death has something for everyone.”

Full review at – Words-a-plenty

You just completed your first novel!  What next?

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Self Publishing Advice

Caged Minds

By David Pyle

Book Store on Facebook

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Select Excerpts from Caged Minds, pp. 337-340

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Jasper casually slid over one of the stacked folders, leaving it closed as he constructed his thoughts.
“The viral specimens I’m speaking of are the sort used in biological warfare.  I’d like to tell you a little story if I may and then we can discuss Mr. Hanner when we’re through.”
Art felt his stomach seize.  Jasper might already be insane.
“You look a little pale, Mr. Butcher.  Perhaps you’d like something a little stronger to mix with your coffee?”
Art shook his head, took a sip of carefully roasted caffeine, and remained silent.
“Quite some time ago, I learned of a desolate little village about twenty miles south of Algiers.  Are you familiar with the area?”
Art nodded slowly, still listening, and more than a little apprehensive.
“Of course you are.  Very simple people, innocent, despite the egregious terrorist regime they labor under.  Most of the natives live out their entire lives never knowing anything other than the immediate area in which they were born.
“It seems a terrorist cell accumulated a group of willing biologists and opened a clinic in the region several months ago.  It was there under the auspices of helping the local impoverished people with the usual medical humanitarian generalities.
“At the same time, these medical scientists were given three male subjects which were in the final ravages of this awful disease.  You see, unfortunately, syphilis is still quite common in third world countries.

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“As a blunt primer on the disease of syphilis, in its final act it penetrates and destroys the blood-brain barrier.  This is the filter which prevents harmful pathogens from entering your most defining organ.”
Jasper tapped the side of his head for emphasis.
Art took another sip if coffee to clear his clotting throat, “So they’re working on some super STD?”
Jasper continued without answering, “These good gentlemen managed to isolate the activities of the most aggressive stage of the syphilis virus while enhancing its properties with another highly contagious derivative.
“In summation, what they created is an airborne version of a pathogen, which has a twenty-two hour incubation period.  Do you remember the Ebola outbreak last summer?”
“Who doesn’t?” replied Art.  “Wait…, that nearly took out the entire west coast of Africa.”
Jasper nodded, the crinkles of sadness spreading across his brow, “Yes, we were less fortunate in our intelligence gathering efforts back then.”
Jasper opened the folder in front of him and displayed several grainy photographs of test subjects, taken at an extreme distance with a telephoto lens.  Inside some sort of metal containment area behind a large brick building were two men who looked like garden variety zombies.  Bloodshot eyes, emaciated, haggard, with bloody scratches all over their bodies from attacking each other.
“This isn’t Ebola.  You want this virus?” asked Art.
Jasper stared with pursed lips, “It’s critical that I have it.”

******

“In twenty-two hours or less, you have these results.”
Art felt the coffee in his stomach churn.  The same telephoto lens had captured the entire population of the village going at each other like rabid pit bulls in a dogfight.  He’d never seen so much carnage in one place, captured in the photographs before him.  Men, women, and children were attacking each other out in the open dirt streets of their little village; scratching, clawing and biting one another to bloody lifeless pulps.

******

…………

First Stanza of “Blood On the Wall“

A teen psyche-ward patient fighting for what’s left of her mind…

i weep at the light of the moon
i scream by the sound of its tune
they talk in my head
while tied in my bed
as i scratch a deep notch in the wall

More from Hells Bells:  http://amzn.to/2pHt3hc

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Facts About Your Characters

• What would completely destroy your character?
• What are the best things in your characters life?
• What are the worst things in your characters life?
• What is your character’s defining characteristic?
• What are seemingly insignificant memories attached to your character?
• What is your character unwilling to tell people?
• How does your character feel about love?
• how many friends does your character have?
• How many friends does your character want?
• What would your character trade their life for?
• What are your character’s major flaws?
• What does your character pretend to care about?
• What image does your character try to project vs. the image actually projected?
• What is your character afraid of?

*partially from NOOK Press

An addendum of books easily picked up on Amazon which will be instrumental in your quest as a budding writer!

Five more needful items for your Fiction Writers Library:

• Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maaas
• Solutions for Writers: Practical Craft Techniques for Fiction and Non-fiction by Sol Stein
• Elements of Fiction Writing – Conflict, Action & Suspense by William Noble
• A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman
• The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile by Noah Lukeman

More info here:  Helpful Books